Report: Obama Considering Susan Rice for National Security Adviser

Daniel Halper

March 9, 2013 7:24 PM

Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador the United Nations, is being considered to be the next national security adviser to the president of the United States, according to media reports.

"Rice has emerged as far and away the front-runner to succeed Thomas E. Donilon as President Obama’s national security adviser later this year, according to an administration official familiar with the president’s thinking. The job would place her at the nexus of foreign-policy decision making and allow her to rival the influence of Secretary of State John F. Kerry in shaping the president’s foreign policy," reports the Washington Post.

"The appointment would mark a dramatic twist of fortune for Rice, whose prospects to become the country’s top diplomat fizzled last year after a round of television appearances in which she provided what turned out to be a flawed account of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya.

"That episode ignited a firestorm of criticism from Senate Republicans, who questioned her honesty and vowed to oppose her nomination and exposed misgivings from more liberal detractors who questioned whether her temperament, her family’s investments and her relations with African strongmen made her unfit to lead the State Department."

The Post maintains that Rice remains close to Obama. "Rice has largely fallen below the media’s radar, but her standing within the Obama administration remains secure, according to White House officials and Democratic lawmakers. Her U.N. colleagues are betting she will ultimately serve as Obama’s national security adviser, probably some time after the United States assumes the rotating presidency of the U.N. Security Council in July."